UPDATE 2-Kazakh uranium miner valued at $3 bln in London IPO

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ALMATY, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Kazatomprom sold 15 percent of its stock in a dual-listing offering in London and Astana which valued the company at $3 billion, the bottom of its pricing range, the Kazakh state-owned uranium miner said on Tuesday.

The sale of a stake in the world’s largest uranium producer is a first initial public offering of a large Kazakh company in more than a decade.

The oil-exporting nation plans to follow it up with similar deals.

Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna will raise between $400.8 million and $451.3 million from the share sale, depending on whether the over-allotment option is exercised, Kazatomprom said in a statement.

Separately, Samruk-Kazyna said in a statement the offer was 70 percent oversubscribed and Kazakh investors have purchased 47.5 percent of the offered stock.

Pricing at the bottom of the $11.60-$15.40 range proposed by Kazatomprom could be due to investor concerns about potential new U.S. sanctions against Moscow - Russia’s Rosatom is Kazatomprom’s strategic partner - as well as potential U.S. import restrictions, said Askar Akhmetov, head of research at Kazakh brokerage BCC invest.

The stock was up 3.4 percent at 1230 GMT in London. Trading in Kazakhstan is set to start next week.

According to Kazatomprom, investors operating through the Astana International Exchange (AIX) in Kazakhstan have bought 2.1 percent of Kazatomprom’s total stock, meaning that most Kazakh investors were also buying in London rather than at the newly-established Astana bourse.

Samruk-Kazyna said a total of 49 foreign and 16 Kazakh institutional investors have bought the stock, as well as 2,700 Kazakh retail investors. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by David Evans)